Editorials
[Butcher Block] Godfather of Gore Lucio Fulci’s ‘The Beyond’
Butcher Block is a weekly series celebrating horror’s most extreme films and the minds behind them. Dedicated to graphic gore and splatter, each week will explore the dark, the disturbed, and the depraved in horror, and the blood and guts involved. For the films that use special effects of gore as an art form, and the fans that revel in the carnage, this series is for you.
Herschell Gordon Lewis may be known as the Godfather of Gore, but it’s a title that he shares with one other; Italian gore master Lucio Fulci. With over 50 films in his filmography ranging from western to comedy, Fulci was most known for his horror. Of all his films, the most widely known and likely most accessible is The Beyond, also known as 7 Doors of Death, the second entry in his “Gates of Hell” trilogy and one of three Fulci films to grace the Video Nasties list. Whether it’s the goriest of Fulci’s films is highly debatable, but his trademark gore sequences are there and the plot is one of his more coherent (by Fulci standards, that is), making The Beyond a perfect entry point into his work.
That the plot often makes huge gaps in story and logic could easily be attributed to Fulci’s style of horror, more fevered dream than linear storytelling, but, came about from a rush job by producer Fabrizio De Angelis selling the film before a screenplay was even written. He enlisted Dardano Sacchetti to get a script ready to go, and then the high demand for zombies during the period meant zombies inserted to the climax in a film mostly devoid of them. With Fulci at the helm, though, his focus on atmosphere and his own brand of logic made it somehow work in the film’s favor.
Following Liza Merril, played by “Gates of Hell” mainstay actress Catriona MacColl, as she learns that the old hotel in Louisiana that she’s just inherited was built over one of the gates to hell. With a crew of hired help that meets grisly deaths thanks to the gate being opened, the only other ally in Liza’s quest to unravel just what’s going on is Dr. John McCabe (David Warbeck), perhaps the only other sane person in New Orleans.
Never mind that some of the grisly deaths don’t make much sense, like the housekeeper that pulls a giant hairball from the murky bathtub and still misses the giant zombie that’s revealed by the draining water. It’s the gore that soothes over the logic gaps. In a sort of reverse twist to the famous eye penetration scene in Zombi 2, the zombie picks up the housekeeper and shoves the back of her head into protruding nails in the wall, causing her eye to gouge out from the back.
There’s also a gruesome dog mauling, multiple acid-ravaged faces, another eye gouged out by hand, a bloodied flesh torn face vomiting bloody chunks, glass shards to a face, crucifixion, flesh-eating tarantulas and a ton of other gore sequences culminating in one breathtaking, explosive headshot of little pig-tailed Jill. Fulci had a tremendous eye for gore (pun intended), and his frequent cinematographer Sergio Salvati’s knack for framing the viscera in such an uncomfortably intimate level, but just as much credit should be given to special effects artist Germano Natali (Suspiria) and master make-up artist Giannetto De Rossi (Zombi 2, High Tension).
Fulci’s films were never about coherent narratives in the traditional sense, but a string of visual images by way of dream logic meant to elicit shock and awe. More of a statement on the passage of time, and the Catholic concept of purgatory, The Beyond delivers on the surreal. A nightmarish vision strung together by punctuated moments of visceral gore of epic proportions means that The Beyond isn’t necessarily a journey everyone will enjoy taking, but it is a true masterpiece. No one before or since delivers eye trauma as well as Fulci.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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